Reviews, Views and Adventures in Content Creation

Sunday, October 16, 2011

"The Vlogger Interviews" is an ongoing series of vlogs and blogs exploring the definition of vlogging – from the vlogger's perspective, If you like this interview, I would appreciate your subscription to http://youtube.com/worldaccordingtorich on YouTube. Contact me if you'd like to be considered for the next interview!

In this forth installment of "The Vlogger Interviews," I spoke with Richard Reynolds, a Maine-based vlogger whose YouTube channel, BusterSenshi reflects, as he calls it, the "zeitgeist," or spirt of the time.

Though Reynold's videos provide information, they're not like broadcast news, "the trick behind web video is that it's got to be funny. If you're not funny, people are going to leave your video." Unlike watching news on television, "People don't say, oh the YouTube video is on, let's watch that." In a very short period of time, a YouTube video has to capture an audience.

Reynolds mentions several "tricks" he and other vloggers use to "catch" his audience, beginning with "I make sure that the first five seconds is something you're going to love." Other hints include make certain your video includes an embedded subscription button, and perhaps having a short opening intro clip.

For new vloggers, perhaps the most important "take-away" from this interview is Reynold's advice to seek out subscribers outside of YouTube.

"The easiest way to build subscribers on YouTube is to not do it on YouTube. You should actually be self-promoting yourself on other sites. You should always be on Twitter. You should always be on Facebook. You should be showing your video up every way you can. If you're at somewhere and you're just like, hey, I make YouTube videos, you've probably got a smart phone or a computer in front of you. Go ahead and show them your video. You'll be amazed at how many people like that. As soon as you've got that one friend who likes it, they're going to stop showing their stuff on their Facebook, their Twitter. "

Across media, it seems, personal word-of-mouth can still be a powerful tool. In the movie business, word-of-mouth created a unexpected "sleeper" hit - on YouTube, perhaps - a viral hit.

With all of the tricks and tools of the trade, however, Reynolds emphasized that the most important consideration of all in creating a successful YouTube channel is....